The beauty city of Chicago has been blessed with Lake Michigan and it fresh water source, but the city’s water mains are over one hundred years old and are prone to leakages. These leakages are a waste of valuable fresh water as well as the envy of the drought ridden south. The Mayor’s office plans on replacing and or upgrading the water mains throughout the city of Chicago. This project will take about ten years and require that all of the water mains be accessed during this process. The process will be grueling for commuters as well as for workers. Fortunately, the city plans to decrease the length of these setbacks by tackling pre-existing road problems at the same time as the water main construction. Such combining efforts will alleviate the need to come back to the same streets for water main repairs. Also, taking care of both issues at once will help conserve the amount of energy that would be needed to rip up the streets twice, and the man power that would be needed. Combining these two efforts will make commuters happier, the price of the work cheaper, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted lower, and repairing the water leaks.
I firmly believe that repairing the water mains would benefit Chicago in a two-fold manner. First, the water wouldn’t be wasted anymore, and secondly, commuters would be forced to travel via public transportations or on bicycles to avoid the enormous traffic delays that follow ripping up the streets. Forcing commuters to use public transportation would significantly help lower carbon dioxide emissions (http://www.newstips.org/2007/08/reducing-chicagos-carbon-footprint/).
As referenced in the article, public transportation vastly outweighs the benefits of bulky, space consuming, hybrid vehicles. Hybrid vehicles do still emit emissions and take up possible public transportation space. One possible way to help drive the public transportation effort would be to offer a discounted CTA long term pass to those switching over from vehicular transportation. Such promotion of the public transportation systems in Chicago would resemble the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon. In Pearl District many walkable areas have been instituted, away from the streets, as well as a light rail system with public transit pickups at each of its stops (http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/portlands_shrinking_carbon_foo.html).
Though the Pearl District displays environmental advancements, “Compared to 2010, PWB carbon emissions increased 18% in 2011 due to demand for supplemental groundwater pumping and higher vehicle fleet fuel use”, their water related carbon footprints continues to rise. The city of Chicago is steadily increasing the sustainability of its water resource by fixing water main leaks, which simultaneously helps cut down on the cities carbon footprint.
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